Why the sex offender registry isn’t the right way to punish rapists
Dara Lind on July 5, 2016, 10:50 a.m. ET @DLind dara@vox.com
Why the sex offender registry isn’t the right way to punish rapists
There are two parts to any criminal sentence for any crime involving sex.
There’s the standard sentence: prison time or probation. As soon as the first sentence ends, the second one begins.
After getting released from prison, an ex-offender has to sign up for his state’s sex offender registry. If he moves to another state, he’ll have to sign up there too. Depending on the state and the seriousness of the crime, his name, picture, and information will be publicly listed for all to see — permanently.
It might seem like an appropriate punishment for someone like Brock Turner, who received only a few months in prison for sexually assaulting an unconscious woman earlier this year.
But the sex offender registry wasn’t designed to punish people like Brock Turner. It wasn’t designed to punish people at all.